So I couldn't stand to see this thread all the way down to page 4. So. . .
The Demon’s Eye. . .Man, it’s been a while
So, it’s only been six months since our last campaign update, but for better or worse (probably worse for any in the Trojan Reach trying to live a quiet, peaceful life), we are back.
Last installment is on page 23 of his thread for any that might be interested.
Our Heroes, the “B Team” of the upgraded far trader Lady Miria:
Captain Alaina Madigan, retired Imperial Navy
Colonel Chadwick Vangeles, retired from the planetary army of Simok. Married to Alaina
Lt. Gemma Arminger – former Naval Engineer, Alaina’s protégé
Sgt. Junior Sanchez – also from Simok, served under Chad. Not terribly bright or charming, but good to have around when trouble hits. Often that trouble is of his own making.
Lemuel Volin, NPC, geeky kid from Neumann.
Buddha, NPC, former Navy enlisted, left the service after finding religion. Getting a lift to Mirage in return for getting our Travellers admitted to the religious conference there. Passable sensor operator.
Our heroes finally depart from Tobia, sans some of their best gear, which is still impounded by the authorities at the Starport. Two jumps later, they arrive at Simok, and fulfill their task for the Duke of Tobia to deliver his messages to both sides in the conflict there: “Wrap this up in the next year, or I’ll have Imperial Marines wrap it up for you.” Chad adds a personal appeal, telling both sides that the war has gone on far past its original points of contention, and that they need to rebuild, as their fighting skills and experience will be needed for a bigger war that is coming. Buddha also spends some time with the rebel leaders, but refuses to disclose to the team what was discussed.
Of course, no trip back to the home planet would be complete without going to see Mom, so the team extends its stay for week so Chad and Junior can visit their families. Chad’s mother still doesn’t quite approve of Alaina, but is happy enough to see her son after several years that she mostly behaves.
Junior takes the team to meet his family, and warns his friends: “So my Mom is going to bug me about getting married, and she’s really going to bug me about it when she meets Gemma.”
Gemma: “Eww.”
Junior: “Sorry, it’s just how Mom is. I can’t stop her.” True to form, Mrs. Sanchez makes quite the fuss over Gemma, but eventually the team manages to depart, without any nuptials.
Three weeks later, the Lady Miria finally arrives in Mirage. What a dump. Desert world populated by poor farm workers, sand bugs that are crushed to make hallucinogens, and a handful of very, very wealthy farm owners.
Upon arrival, the team quickly learn that Dr. Jali’s stolen ship, the Lord Gerald’s Fancy, arrived a couple of weeks earlier. Working the docks for information, they ascertain that Dr. Jali departed the ship shortly after arrival, paid berthing fees for two months, and hasn’t been seen since. The port workers don’t know where she is, and why would they care?
After setting up discrete surveillance camera on the Fancy, the team arranges a meeting with the Marquise D’Haube, the wealthy landowner sponsoring the conference. Although reasonably polite, she doesn’t seem too impressed with what she learns of Buddha’s religion. She’s actually more excited to learn that Lemuel is originally from Neumann, and peppers him with the questions about the Shield Church. She tells the team that the Shield Church’s official representative, Archon Dreek, is arriving soon. The Marquise would appreciate anything they can do to help her gain the Archon’s confidence, and she provides Buddha and his entourage with a villa conveniently located next to the one the Archon will be using. She offers transportation to and from the conference each day, but the team declines, renting an air raft of their own use instead. They also purchase four stunners, appropriate for a holy man’s bodyguards.
As a Neumann native, Lemuel has no trouble arranging a visit with Archon Dreek, and takes Junior along. Ever since he got infected twice in the same week by nanobots, Junior has become an eager student of the Shield Church’s teachings. They also learn that the Archon travels everywhere with two Shield Knights, both in battledress. After the initial meetings and getting settled in, the team decides to inform Archon Dreek that he is in danger, and hopefully enlist his aid to capture Dr. Jali so she can be cured. Unfortunately this plan backfires, as the Archon declares Dr. Jali’s work to be demonic, and that she can only be cured by the cleansing fire of nuclear fusion.
(Unbeknownst to the team, Lemuel contacts Dr. Jali, letting her know the team is still after her, that her ship is under surveillance, and that the Archon has been forewarned.)
The team snoops around for a few days, looking for clues as to Dr. Jali’s whereabouts, without success. Then, very early one morning, pay dirt. Their surveillance camera picks up an air raft landing at the Lord Gerald Fancy. Dr. Jali is a passenger, and the driver is a Miragian, wearing the full uniform and head covering of the pilots employed by Marquise D’Haube. As they walk up the ramp and board the ship, they see that Dr. Jali is holding a laser pistol, and that the driver is actually her hostage. A few minutes later, however, the pilot is seen running with abandon from the Fancy, falling once in his haste to escape, before diving into the air raft and departing at full acceleration.
The team watches this in almost real time, and are preparing for an assault on the Fancy when they watch the flyer depart. They have no way to track the air raft, and it appears Dr. Jali is still on board the tramp trader. But how did the Miragian chauffer escape?
The team decides to storm the Fancy regardless, as that’s where they except to find Dr. Jali. Having been forced to leave their heavy armor and weaponry in Tobia, they don poly carapace armor. They all carry stunners in hopes of detaining Dr. Jali. Chad picks an auto shotgun as his primary weapon, along with a monoblade. The ladies go with their usual laser carbines and monoblades. Junior packs two gauss pistols, along with his trusty knife. Lemuel has his auto pistol, as always. Buddha stays at the villa.
At the Lord Gerald’s Fancy, Alaina hacks her way through the security system, and is able to not only open the airlock, but access the ships internal security cameras. They watch as two of the “cursed” zombies walk the ship, and then Dr. Jali and her prisoner arrive. She forces him into the crew stateroom closest to the airlock, and the two cursed follow them in. After a minute, the chauffer darts desperately from the room, out the hatch, and to his air raft. Dr. Jali and the two cursed have never left the stateroom.
Knowing the enemy is right around the corner from them, the team tries to silently plan their attack. After a minute of this, Junior motions to the others to draw their blades, and puts his back to the wall of the passageway, next to the corner where the stateroom door is. He draws his second pistol and smiles. Whirling around the corner with both pistols up and a yell of “Leeroy Jenkins!”, Junior opens fire with both pistols on full auto. The cursed are waiting for their own surprise attack, not knowing that the team has access to the camera feeds. They launch themselves at Junior, who keeps firing while backing into the crew common area behind him. The others then approach the cursed from behind and to the slide, swinging monoblades while trying to stay out Junior’s line of fire (referee’s ruling, -2 to attack, and if anyone rolls snakes eyes, bad things may result). Junior hit one cursed three times, and the other once. The first falls to blades, but the second manages to land one attack on Junior even as it is stuck by Alaina’s blade, but its poisoned claws are rebuffed by the carapace armor.
For round two, Junior disdainfully throws both pistols aside, draws his knife, and stabs the cursed in the chest (a high rolls results in 2 damage after armor). No longer having to avoid friendly fire, Gemma steps in with a mighty swing for 22 damage, killing the second creature with style (anyone else ever play the Baldur’s Gate video games? Remember when your “tank” fighter would hit the bad guy so hard it would just explode into chunks? That’s how I envision Gemma’s hit)
But where is Dr. Jali? In the stateroom, they find a bound, naked man, who, when freed, identifies himself as Jek, a flyer in the Marquise’s employ. Oh, no. Dr. Jali forced him to take her to the Fancy at gunpoint, then stole his clothes and tied him up. Barely pausing long enough to cut Jek’s bonds, our heroes race out the ship and into their own air raft. With Alaina at the controls, Chad tries to call Buddha, but he doesn’t answer. Lemuel calls Dreek, but apparently the Archon has them all blocked. Lemuel pauses for a moment, then punches another code his comm, but after a moment he puts it away. “Can’t get any of them, he says”. Gemma uses her handheld to search for Buddha’s location, and sees that he is travelling at relatively high speed in the direction of the Marquise’s estate. High speed, as in the cruising speed of an air raft.
As they race to catch up, Junior spots an air raft in the distance, and using binoculars he sees five occupants, including two in battledress. Just then Buddha returns Chad’s call. “Hey, yeah, the Shield Church guys let me ride with them to the conference since ya’ll were busy. Figured I’d be safe with these Knights around in any case. What the hell, my seatbelt. . .” Chad hears Buddha’s high pitch scream before the call cuts out.
Junior yells: “The air raft just flipped over! The Knights and Buddha are falling!” Their air raft is now close enough they can see the falling figures. Then one of the three falling bodies begins to slow, and the second figures changes direction slightly, veering towards the third.
Lemuel, watching from the back, says “The Knights have grav assist in their armor. Jali probably didn’t know that.” As the team approaches, they see one of the Shield Knights deftly catch Buddha before coming to a stop some 10 feet off the ground. The other knight pulls a fusion rifle from behind her back, aims, and fires, striking the air raft. As the raft falls, both knights and our heroes fly in pursuit.
The B team arrives at the crash site, in a grove of trees not far from the estate, after the Knights. Jali and Dreek are both alive. Jali, still wearing the heavy cloak of a Miragian flyer but now unmasked, is unconscious on the ground, and appears to have suffered far worse from the crash than Dreek, who is struggling to his feet. Buddha is standing next to her, arms out, pleading with the Neumannian’s not to execute her. The team arrives just in time to hear the knight who shot down the air raft tell Buddha “Pastor, I know you are a man of peace. We are not. I shot that raft with my Archon it. I will shoot her with you standing there. You need to back away. Now.”
Her partner, the Knight who caught Buddha in mid air, looks at the Travellers, while casually holding his FGMP not quite in their direction. “Ya’ll need to step back, too. This is no longer your concern.”
Chad, hands raised, replies “We made a promise to save her. We keep our promises. You don’t have to kill her. She can be saved, physically and uh, spiritually”
Archon Dreek, standing as straight as he can muster with his injuries, spits in disgust and says “By the authority granted me by the Shield Church, in the name of the Immor. . .”
“BY ORDER OF THE IMMORTAL PROTECTOR, YOU WILL STAND DOWN!” Lemuel’s voice rings out from behind the rest of team, as if amplified by powerful loudspeakers. As the team covers their ears in pain, Lemuel strides in front of them to face Archon Dreek.
The two shield knights appear momentarily stunned, but Archon Dreek’s face is filled with rage. “You! Blasphemer! You are not the Immortal Protector! You are in league with this demon, and you will burn with her!” Dreek moves quickly towards he closest knight, attempting to take her FGMP. Junior quickly motions Chad, Alaina, and and Gemma away while quietly saying “radiation, back back back”. The knight refuses to surrender her weapon, and Dreek’s strength is no match for her battledress enhanced power. The knight looks quickly from Lemuel, to Dreek, to her partner, and then back again, but holds fast to her gun. After a few moments, Dreek gives up on the heavy weapon, striding towards Lemuel while producing a laser pistol from under his robes. As he raises it to fire, Lemuel nods towards the knights. The female knight moves quickly in front of Buddha and Jali, as if to shield them. The second knight raises his FMPG, and reduces Archon Dreek to radioactive ash.
Both knights then drop to one knee, saying “Immortal Protector” in unison. Lemuel, apparently unconcerned about any radiation walks up to the scorched earth where Dreek stood, and says” I’m sorry, old friend. You were a good soldier, but your faith failed you in the end.” Then looking, at the knights “Ya’ll best get up. Those fusion guns tend to attract attention." Turning to the unconscious form on the ground next to Buddha, "Come Dr. Jali. Neumann has excellent medical facilities. We’ll get you patched up and you can continue your research at the very edge of the swarm zone.” A Shield knight gently picks up Jali. The other picks up Lemuel, and their grav belts begin slowing carrying them upward.
Lemuel then looks down at our heroes. “So I’m off. I’ve got my own ride now, but I appreciate you getting me this far. If you want to come with, meet me at the Archon’s ship on landing pad 14. You’ve come all this way, you might as well see it through to the end, right? Its two weeks to Neumann at Jump-3. Would take four weeks in your ship, so don’t bother unless you want to ride with us.”
Buddha, staring up at Lemuel, says “I think I’m gonna stay here. You people are a little too exciting for my tastes”
Lemuel: “Well then, bhikkhu. This is goodbye. I enjoyed our theological discussions. Do stop by the church if you’re ever on Neumann.” Then looking back at Chad, Alaina, Junior, and Gemma, “Pad 14. C’mon, it’ll be fun”. As they turn in the direction of the downport, the male knight looks at his partner and says “This conference was lame anyway.” While the team stares in stunned silence, the Immortal Protector and his two Shield Knights fly way, skimming just above the treetops of the oasis surrounding the D’Haube estate.